In U.S. application Ser. No. 598,873, filed July 24, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,174 and entitled "Food Composition Containing Whey Colloidal Precipitate", there is disclosed a modifier of the present nature, which is a non-proteinaceous colloidal precipitate of whey. Basically, the whey colloidal precipitate is the product of a process having at least one step of (a) raising the pH of whey to at least 5.8 and (b) heating the whey to a temperature of at least 80.degree. C., for a time sufficient to produce the said precipitate. The whey colloidal precipitate is also identifiable as a complex precipitate which in aqueous suspension has an average particle size of less than 10 microns, is essentially white in color, exhibits no disagreeable taste in aqueous suspensions of up to 30%, can be dried to a free-flowing powder, and is capable of gelling water and petroleum ether. The whey colloidal precipitate must be produced from whey which has been priorly sufficiently deproteinated so that 5% by weight of trichloroacetic acid therein will not yield more than 5% by weight of precipitated protein.
As a typical example of a process for producing the whey colloidal precipitate, acid whey is suspended in water and heated to approximately 100.degree. F., with stirring, to dissolve the acid whey and disperse the non-soluble fractions in water. This dispersion/solution is then passed through an ultra-filtration membrane, e.g. Westinghouse D-150*, and the permeate from the membrane is collected as an essentially protein-free fraction. The permeate is slowly treated with a base, e.g. potassium hydroxide, to raise the pH of the permeate from the usual pH level of about 4.4 to a pH of at least 5.6 where the whey colloidal precipitate commences to precipitate from the permeate. Increasing the pH by further additions of base will precipitate more of the whey colloidal precipitate, although at a pH of about 7.2, most of the whey colloidal precipitate has been recovered. Alternately, or in addition thereto, the permeate may be heated, e.g. to about 180.degree. F., to achieve the further recovery of the whey colloidal precipitate. FNT *Trademark
The whey colloidal precipitate may be recovered from the permeate by filtration, decanting and the like, or it may be used in its wetted or dried form.
As an example of use of the whey colloidal precipitate, it may be incorporated into a conventional dry powdered whipped topping to provide foam stabilization for the reconstituted and whipped powder.
As can be appreciated, since the whey colloidal precipitate is derived from whey, it is food-grade, and in a sense, can be considered a food. Thus, it can be used in food and food-grade compositions in any desired amount without compromising the food or food-grade status of the resulting composition. The versatility of the whey colloidal precipitate in effecting the various physical properties, noted above, also provides a unique advantage in that a single ingredient can be used for many different purposes in such compositions. Thus, a substantial advantage to the art is provided by the whey colloidal precipitate.
However, as can also be appreciated, since the whey colloidal precipitate is derived from whey, production thereof is based on available supplies of whey, and the process for producing and recovering the whey colloidal precipitate, while relatively simple and straightforward, does involve rather substantial processing of whey, especially in that relatively large volumes of whey must be handled in order to produce substantial amounts of the whey colloidal precipitate.
In the above noted application, the whey colloidal precipitate is identified in the manner described above, and it will be noted that the precipitate is a complex precipitate from essentially deproteinated whey. The chemical composition of the complex precipitate was not identified, particularly due to the difficulties of such an analysis. Accordingly, the whey colloidal precipitate and its advantages to the art could only be provided by processing whey, as described above, and is referred to as natural whey colloidal precipitate.
In view of the above, it would be of substantial advantage to the art to directly produce a modifier having properties similar to whey colloidal precipitate, but without the necessity of deriving that modifier from whey. This would avoid the necessity of handling the large volumes of whey, along with the attendant processing thereof, and would assure a consistent modifier, as opposed to the variability of modifier produced from whey, bearing in mind that the composition of whey can vary with the source, the processing details and the particular cheese from which the whey is derived.